Sept. Food Shopping Trip #2

I popped into ACME real quick today on my lunch break and picked up the following:

2 x Bisquick 20oz box
2 x Cheerios Original Cereal
Cheerios Multigrain Cereal
Malt O Meal Honey Nut Scoopers Cereal
Betty Crocker Choc. Chip Cookie Mix
Betty Crocker Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Warm Delights Desert
Betty Crocker Ready Serve Frosting
4 x Spaghettios

Total Before Savings = $33.36
Total After Savings = $3.04

After work I swung over to GIANT and completed the rest of our shopping. Here's what else I came home with:

Caroline White Rice, 16oz

3 x Del Monte Cans Diced Tomatoes

Del Monte Canned String Beans

Del Monte Canned Sweet Peas

College Inn Broth

Bread

Welch's Blueberry, Pomegranate, Grape Juice (yes that is all one flavor)

3 x Shake & Bake (bf loves this stuff)

Ronzoni Garden Delight Pasta, 12oz

2 x Starkist Tuna Pouches

1/2lb Deli Ham Lunch Meat

1lb Clearfield American Cheese

Bananas

Turkey Hill Ice Cream

Florida Natural Orange Juice

4pk Activia Yogurt

8 x Yoplait Single Serve Yogurts

Milk, 1 gallon

Eggs, 1 dozen

2lbs Tilapia Fillets (on sale but still over $10, but the bf REALLY wanted fish!)

Total Before Savings = $72.85

Total After Savings = $41.85

GRAND TOTAL TODAY = $44.89

That brings our total for September to $87.86 - still $12.14 under budget!

Wednesday's Food Shopping Trip

Headed to the grocery store today for my first shopping trip in September. Here is what I came home with:

There were so much today that I had a hard time getting it all in one picture.

I bought:
5 x Kraft Shredded Cheese 8oz
Utz Pretzels 16oz
2 x Goya Yellow Spanish Rice
Mission Tortillas 10ct
Glory Canned Turnip Greens 27oz
Turkey Hill Ice Cream 1.5qt
4 lbs Bananas
Cheerios 9oz box
Multigrain Cheerios 9ox box
Cinnabon Cereal 10oz
Betty Crocker Warm Delight
Carolina White Rice 16oz
College Inn Beef Broth 16oz
White House Apple Sauce 6pack
Ronzoni Garden Delighty Fettuccine 12oz
Starkist Tuna Pouch 2.6oz
2 x Deer Park 8pk water, 11oz bottles
5 lb Flour
Apple Juice 64oz
1/4 lb Provolone Cheese
1/2 lb Pepper Turkey
2 x Bagged Dole Salad
Shadybrook Farm Turkey Burgers 4ct
Pizza (frozen)
Orange Juice 64oz
Land o Lakes Butter 16oz
Dannon Light & Fit 4pk, 24oz
Coffeemate Creamer 16oz
8 x Yoplait Yogurt, 6oz each
Milk 1 gallon
Schick Hydro 3 Razor, 1ct

Total Before Savings = $109.93
Total Savings (bonus card + coupons) = $67.25

Total Paid Out of Pocket = $42.97

I also got back $1.50 off my next grocery order from Deer Park and some extra store coupons!!

It Always Pays to Check Your Receipts

Today I completed our second shopping trip for August. We ended up lasting longer than two weeks from our last trip which was on 8/10. That trip cost $42.44, plus I picked up milk about a week ago which was around $3.50 so I had about $54 to spend if I wanted to stay on budget ($100 per month).

I made two stops today, one at Giant and then a quick stop at Acme to score their deal on Quaker Granola bars. Here is what I came home with today:

1lb bag Carolina Rice - $.09 after coupon

Cinnabon Cereal - $1.19 after coupon plus box has a Mail in Rebate for full price of item

2 bags Utz Chips (BOGO sale) - $1.74 for both after coupons

2 Maxwell House Coffee - $4 for both after coupon

2 boxes Wheat Thins - $3 for both after coupons

2 cans Starkist Tuna - $1 after coupon

Coffee Filters - $.99

Apple Juice - $1.69

2 gallons water - $.79 each

Land o Lakes American cheese 1lb - $3.99 after coupon

2 Oscar Mayer Bologna (BOGO sale) - $1.69 for both after coupon

1 packs Perdue breaded Chicken Cutlets - $1.50 after coupon

Perdue Boneless Chicken Breasts (BOGO sale) - $10.47 for about 5lbs after coupons

Frozen Pizza - $2.50

Orange Juice - $2.50

Dannon Light & Fit 4pk - $.89 after coupon

Coffee-mate Creamer - $.05 after coupon

6 Yoplait Yogurts - $2.74 after coupon

Mission Flour Tortillas 10ct - $1.19 after coupon

Gallon Milk - $3.39

Dozen Large Eggs - $1.39 *this price has been raised, used to be $1.09 :(

Rubbing Alcohol (bf asked for it, don't know why) - $1.09

2 loaves Holsum King Bread (BOGO sale) - $.44 for both after coupons

I was feeling very confident walking up to the check out at Giant with everything above. My total came to $52.87. This was higher than I had expected, and I was bummed because I now couldn't afford Quaker granola bars in our budget, but I paid, walked out to my car and ran down my receipt to make sure everything had rung up properly. I noticed that the Holsum bread did NOT ring up as BOGO. I went back to the customer service desk and asked why this was. The store manager checked my receipt, checked the tag on the shelf and gave me back $5.38 - apparently the store policy is "if a BOGO sale doesn't ring up correctly the customer gets both items FREE"!!! So I got two HUGE loafs of bread FREE and now had $6.50 still in the budget to play with at ACME.

At ACME I picked up

5 boxes (10ct each) Quaker Granola bars - $4.95 for all after coupons

and another pack of Perdue Breaded Chicken Cutlets - $1.50 after coupon

My total came to $6.45

Grand Total for Everything = $53.94 ($.06 under budget & we're well stocked!)

Total savings = $69.43, which is a 56% savings! Plus I'll get back $2.35 on the cereal rebate!

So remember, it's ALWAYS to your benefit to check your receipts!!!

My 1st August Shopping Trip

One of my greatest passions and hobby is finding and getting great deals! I have been couponing for years now, but only started couponing seriously within the past two. I started out slow and it took a lot of time in the beginning. I saved a dollar here and a dollar there but every penny counts right? Well today I would consider myself an extreme couponer. I frequently manage to get freebies by pairing coupons with sales and still find it thrilling to come home from the grocery store having saved 50% or more!

I decided in starting this blog that I would give myself a challenge by setting a monthly grocery budget which you all can hold me accountable for - i'm aiming for $100 per month and only bi-weekly food shopping. I should mention that I have two mouths to feed (mine and my boyfriend's) and we eat breakfast and dinner at home and brown bag our lunches.

So all that being said, I thought I would share my first shopping trip for the month of August....brace yourself, it was a big one!!! (although I bought less items than usual, the value was higher than my usual trips)

I bought: (* q = coupon)
2 x 46oz Juicy Juice (the bf loves this!) @ 2/$5 used $1/2 q
2 x Taco Bell taco seasoning @ $1.18 for 2, used $0.75/2 q which doubled making 2 FREE packets
1 box of Wheat Thins @ $2.50 used $1/1 q
1 loaf Holsum Bread @ $2.69 used $0.75/1 q which doubled to $1.50 off
1 Gallon of Water (for our beta fish)
1 Vanilla Extract 1 fl.oz.
1/2 lb. Deli Ham
2lbs Strawberries @ $3.99 on BOGO (buy one get one free) sale
1 bag Dole Salad @ $2.50 used $1/1 q
                   I then used a store coupon for $2 off a $5 produce purchase
2 x 16oz packs of Hatfield Bacon @ $5.99 on BOGO sale, used $1/1 q on each pack = $2 off
2 x 2lb boneless Hatfield pork loin filets @ $11.68 on BOGO sale, used $1/1q on each
2 x 1lb boneless country style boneless pork ribs on sale for $1.67each
2 x Green's Ice Cream @ 2/$4 used $1/2 q
1 box Luigi's Water Ice @ $2 used $1/1 q
1 cartoon Florida Natural OJ
1 16oz Coffeemate creamer @ $1.55 used $0.75/1 q which doubled to a $1.50 off
8 Yoplait yogurts @ $0.50each, used $0.50/8 q which doubled to $1 off (or two free)
1 gallon milk
1 dozen large eggs
1 bottle Softsoap hand soap on sale for $1, used $0.50/1q which doubled to $1 off = FREE

I then used a $4 off a $45 purchase I had received on my last trip and swipped my bonus card at check out.....

Grand Total before savings = $94.95

What I paid after all coupons and discounts...drum roll please.....$42.44! That is a savings of $52.51!

So what do you think? Was this a post worthy trip?